Thanks @Robert
I have already started analyzing the poem. Looking at the beginning letters, rearranging words, looking at the way Travelers name seems to “disintegrate” the more he communicates with us, etc. (Those are my tinfoil hat theories for today). I will post here if I find something.
Super stoked to be working with you all though!
The word baryn also seems to be a variation on the word “baron”. I took it to mean that whoever or whatever it was died on holy ground.
Possible alternative is Baron. So say, maybe there was a Rabbit. And he was a Baron. And he killed a Magister. On his soil.
Probably a stretch. Just wanted to throw it out there. Baron’s soil or barren soil.
So… did we get the last line? I see the comments are gone. Did he final lines every show up?
I don’t believe we got a last line, or if we did, it disappeared shortly after being posted with all the others.
So, I just joined recently and left a comment for the Traveler yesterday. It’s sad he disappeared before he could share the last lines, hopefully we have enough to figure it out by now. Judging from the length, it looks like the only missing lines were from the toad’s stanza.
All I noticed is the mourning animals (cat, owl, mouse, toad) are all associated with being magical familiars. (In fact, I think these are the pets allowed in the Harry Potter series) Whether this is important or just thematic I do not know.
I belive the final lines were the second set that I posted because the name asociated to it was “Anonymous”
I did a quick search and Baryn is a place in the Ukraine. This poem could be referring to a conflict with Russia or France. I say France or Russia because of their flag and the line “Diamond coat of Red and Blue”. Haven’t looked more into that yet, but that’s at least my thought process
I doubt that it might be related to Ukraine. Baryn is a name of village which doesn’t exist anymore and there were no military conflicts on this territory at least recently (trust me, I’m Ukrainian :). According to the style of the poem it’s more about ancient England, most of the old words can be found in the Gentlemen’s Lexicon http://bit.ly/2cq1gGL
Now that it seems like traveler has left us, maybe we can actually contact Deidre now, I’m going to write a comment and see if she can see the comments, who knows, she might be able to help us if we can reach out.
so my two cents about traveler. in the old BC33 comment system, when you didn’t enter a name it would say you were “anonymous.” so that last comment to dg posted by “anonymous” was probably traveler posting without a name. it might be the last post he ever makes. we’re missing two lines, either we can figure this out without them, or we can’t.
I mean, we had to ask him even though we knew what it was doing… he knew it would happen. told us so. maybe that’s what he meant when he said the ending is coming.
Well, here’s my last few attempts at reason. None of them panned out for me, but maybe they’ll help spark something useful in someone smarter than me.
Then I thought maybe they were actually mourning Sullivan Green himself. But that seemed a dead end.
Ojorad
Vidivinty
Nhadastra (maybe the mouse?)
Ebends
Mora
Jumbled up the first letters spell ‘Venom’. That is a useless fact you now know. You’re welcome.
I’ve been looking for a fable that has our 4 animals in it. Cat, (Un)Owl, Mouse and Toad. Bonus points if it has a goat in it. I can find plenty of fables with 2, even 3 of the animals in them. None with 4 so far.
I’ve stared at the lines
Ebends unbound Mora’s tether
and Forged the Thorns in drubbin minn’ing
The Merest part a way of weather
when Watch elects the final frinning
for fours. I think I can recite them in my sleep now. This lines are complete gibberish to me. They make no sense to me. They have a whole bunch of words capitialized for no good reason I can tell. I’m not even sure where they belong in the poem. Are they an introduction, the final lines? Part of a different poem?
Maybe this is one of those things you solve at 4am after you stop thinking about it a while. We’ll see. Anyone else got any ideas?
While there are lot of words that seem odd since they come from the Gentlemen’s Lexicon (great find, Piki!), it’s the “regular” words with an odd spelling that stick out for me. Like the added “r” in “sourl” or the “Un” in “Unowl.” Now, I’m just grasping at straws, but once we have the lines of the poem in order (which I think we pretty much already do), could those extra letters spell out a message/clue/final stanza?
Definitely they could be important. Or they could just be poetic license or the accent the teller seems to have. But yeah, worth checking out.
There seem to be an extra letter in brilla(t)ent.
@Robert A while back recruits were wondering if there might be a clue in the Rambles. If it was worth investigating… Not sure where we’d start, but that tree is a good find that lends credence to the idea.
This might be common knowledge, but I believe the missing two lines go on the stanza with the toad. Going off @Johanna 's loose line structure, each of the other mourners is given 6 lines, and the toad is only given 4. And then I would split the last stanza into two stanzas of 4. Or I guess you could combine the top two stanzas into one. It also forms a bit of a pattern:
4 lines (ABAB)
4 lines (CDCD)
6 lines (EEFFGG)
6 lines (HHIHHJ)
6 lines (KKLMMN)
6 lines (OOOO_ _)
4 lines (PQPQ)
4 lines (RSRS)
The rhyme scheme are the letters in the brackets and it is also very close to a pattern, there are just some odd differences. I feel like there is something obvious I am missing with this, but maybe this can spark someone else.
Nice work, @Brendon. If the poem uses a specific style rhyme scheme (like a shakesperean sonnet, limerick, etc.) finding it might help us determine exactly where the missing couplet goes. It’s been two decades since I studied poetry in college so I’m way rusty. But I’ll try to see what I can find. And I think you’re right that it seems to be missing from the toad.
Okay, so let’s break this down. The poem has 8 stanzas (please forgive me if I’m using my poetry jargon incorrectly). It’s late and I feel I’m half dreaming this. Anyway…
I believe the poem has a book-like pattern. Four stanzas with a particular rhyme scheme followed by another four stanzas that mirror that rhyme scheme. So the stanzas look a bit like this
1
2
3
4
4
3
2
1
The poem is bookended by two stanzas with ABAB rhyme schemes. The first two stanzas have this pattern as do the last two stanzas. So the beginning and end of the poem looks like this:
ABAB
CDCD
(insert big part of poem here)
PQPQ
RSRS
Now, the part of the poem that falls in between those “simple” stanzas are the four “mourning” stanzas. Each stanza is an animal offering its lament at the Minnying of Ojorad (which I’m assuming means funeral or memorial of some kind).
The first mourning stanza is AABBCC. Three couplets in a row.
The second is completely different. It’s AABAAC. A couplet followed by a single line, another couplet, then another single line.
The third mourning stanza also follows the couplet, single line, couplet, single line pattern but with a different rhyme scheme: AABCCD.
The fourth mourning stanza (where we believe we are missing two lines) is a bit tricky to figure out. This stanza should be AABBCC just like the first mourning stanza. Three couplets in a row. BUT, in this stanza the couplets all rhyme. Which would indicate that the missing two lines should end with words that rhyme with toad. Like road, load, etc.
Do we believe those lines are out there somewhere still, even though the Traveler has, sadly, disappeared and taken all of his gems with him? Or do we think they’re gone and we have to work with what we have.
It’s late, I’m grasping at straws, and I barely passed my collegiate poetry classes. I’m just hoping something jumps out at us.
If ( and this is a big if) traveler is related to DG, seen from the answer he gave to that question “lv” which might be the word love, then there is a chance however slim that may be that she has heard this poem before and knows the missing lines, and that only works out if we can actually contact her. The comment I sent is still under moderation so I don’t know if she has control of her comment section back or not. While we’re all picking at anything and everything, it’s the only thing we can do untill something pops out at us
Is it just me or does the poem mention the guilds “Ebends” “Forged” and “Thorns” i mean they are capitalized like names I just think its weird . Also we should be on the look out for more sets of 4.